"All Along You Were Blooming," by Morgan Harper Nichols

Audience: All Ages

Genre: Poetry

Overall Content Rating: Clean

Overall Review

The thing about poetry is that it's hard to review. It's hard to say "you did a good job with ____" when you don't know what the purpose was. And really, such is the case with all writing, but poetry is just harder for me. That said, this poetry collection was really hard to read for a few reasons in particular.

First and foremost... the formatting was all over the place. First, it's left-aligned. Then, it's center-aligned. Then there are pictures with full paragraphs following where it looks like a prose poem and yet not. There were no titles and I couldn't tell if each one was a different poem in the same section or if every time there was a format change, it was the same poem. I think that they're a bunch of poems put together, but really, I know nothing. I could be entirely wrong. Ultimately, that in itself gave a very cluttered feel and I didn't much like it. I was more confused than anything, which made it hard to enjoy the actual work itself.

However, all that said, the images that are interspersed throughout the entire piece are gorgeous and each one has quotes that also are striking in their own way. One of my favorites said "Darling, don't you know? You don't have to hold your breath any longer."

All in all though, I wasn't entirely impressed by the poetry in this piece. While it was pretty, I wasn't struck by anything profound. Which I suppose is a little harsh, but if you're looking for something you've never heard before, I highly doubt you're going to find it in this collection. However, if you're looking for a reminder of who you are in Christ, then this may be the book for you!